Category Archives: Thoughts
Life
The Homeless Two-step
If it wasn’t so pathetic, watching the city’s ‘shock and awe’ closing of the homeless camp on Gladys avenue and the outcome would have been hilarious.
The expression on Mayor Banman’s face when the answer to the question he and council have been ignoring: “if you close the camp, where are the homeless suppose to go?” turned out to be 100 meters along Gladys back to the spot the city had spread with chicken feces must have been quite a sight to behold.
Ignoring reality does not change reality.
Although Abbotsford’s mayor and council appear convinced that if they keep doing the same thing over and over and over, year after year, decade after decade, they will eventually get a result they will like.
I have watched a decade of mayors and councils chase the homeless from camp to camp around and around and around and around Abbotsford. Mayors and councils apparently unable to grasp the simple concept that if the homeless have no option but to camp, the homeless will camp no matter how often the city forces them to move.
When asked by the media where the homeless were suppose to go Mayor Banman stated they were working with local agencies on that.
EXCEPT the local agency that has a funding agreement in place with BC Housing under which Abbotsford Community Services will receive funding to construct 20 units of first stage housing (using the Housing First model); the agreement provides additional funding for services to support the residents.
Pathways to Housing, Inc., of New York City, a program that created the Housing First model won the 2005 American Psychiatric Association Gold Achievement Award in the category of community-based programs.
Considering the reductions in chronic homelessness achieved in the United States using the Housing First approach, that countries in Europe are also using Housing First principles to reduce their chronic homelessness, Abbotsford’s use of chicken feces against the homeless and the spectacular fizzle of the ‘closing’ of the homeless camp across from the Salvation Army…….using Housing First to reduce homelessness in Abbotsford would seem to be so much of a ‘no brainer’, it should be right up council’s alley.
Instead we have the city muttering about ‘Right Location’ to excuse their failure to have rezoned the property proposed for ACS’s first stage housing.
Under Housing First principles the property ACS proposes to use, while it may not be the ‘Right Location’ [politically correct speak for NIMBY], is the Best location – in my opinion and the opinion of others who have advised council for years that Housing First is a best practice that has proven effective in reducing homelessness around the world.
Unfortunately, rather than re-zoning the ACS property, council remains committed to chasing the homeless from spot to spot around Abbotsford; apparently believing that if they chase the homeless long enough and hard enough, council will get a different outcome at some point.
Speaking of being committed, Albert Einstein defined Insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Come to think of it…….unsoundness of mind would certainly explain council’s decisions, actions and behaviours over the past decade.
Post Script:
I am sure that the new tenant at the camp on Gladys across from the Salvation Army is very appreciative of the city making the previous tenants move and the job done removing the debris and making the camp habitable.
End Nigh for Gladys Camp?
It was not a sign post……
….or a complicated system of divination………
………that leads me to predict the end is near for the homeless camp on Gladys Avenue across from the Salvation Army.
It was the appearance of the radar trailer unit that shows drivers their speed….
……..on Gladys Avenue in front of the house adjacent to the Salvation Army on Saturday [September 7, 2013] that foreshadows the intention of the mayor and city council to remove the homeless and their camp from Gladys.
From the moment the media descended on Abbotsford in response to the City’s crazed decision to weaponize and deploy chicken feces against the homeless, the mantra of those who wanted the camp in anyone else’s neighbourhood has been concern for the safety of the homeless vis-à-vis traffic.
A concern manifested when the city turned gun shy [chicken?] about dealing with such a public, media exposed camp.
As if prior to the camp the homeless were not crossing from one side of Gladys to the other.
Indeed, one could argue that the presence of the camp and the public awareness of the camp’s existence makes crossing the road in that section of Gladys safer than it has ever been or will be after the camp is gone.
What would you care to wager that once the camp is gone the expressions of concern about the homeless getting struck by traffic will be gone as well?
The most dangerous aspect of crossing Gladys is that it is a road in Abbotsford: poor or no lighting, meandering and/or invisible lane markings, pavement that threatens to toss your vehicle off the road and vehicle swallowing puddles; which makes mayor and council the leading threat to the homeless from traffic.
Whether on Monday, or a day shortly thereafter, the health department should be appearing at the camp, with the camp being declared a health hazard and the city ‘forced’ to close it for health reasons.
Other than all the dithering, the use of the wringing of hands over the safety of the homeless in traffic, the involvement of health inspectors and not using chicken feces what has changed since Abbotsford’s Day of International Infamy?
Admittedly, we now know the worth of an apology from Mayor Banman and council, giving us the measure of mayor and council.
I am not saying or in any way advocating that the homeless camp on Gladys should be left there.
While the use of chicken feces is unacceptable……
……the camp on Gladys is not much more acceptable, on a number of levels and for numerous reasons, than the use of chicken feces was.
The issue with what will occur with the camp on Gladys lies in the question of: what has changed?
When asked at the time of Mayor Banman’s [as of this point in time] non-apology what form I wanted the apology to take, I stated the city needed a changes in behaviour, attitudes, knowledge and understanding to achieve positive outcomes rather than continuing untold more years of negative consequences and harm to the homeless.
The city can have and use all the nice protocols it wants; have ‘concern for the risk posed to the homeless by traffic’; the use of health inspectors and health concerns; use all the politically correct language and buzzwords it wants; the bottom line remains: were are the homeless suppose to go? The Twilight zone? Down the rabbit hole to Wonderland?
Stripped down to its reality the city is back, however gently and slowly at this point, engaged once more in the futility of pointlessly chasing the homeless around Abbotsford from camp to camp.
It is not just that mayor and council have no ideas or strategies to address homelessness, but that mayor and council are actively refusing strategies demonstrated effective in reducing homelessness.
Given the wilful ignorance and callus disregard for the homeless in the mayor and council’s return to business as usual in its behaviours and actions towards the homeless and the atrocious behaviour of the mayor and council’s in evading the rezoning to permit Abbotsford Community Services to provide twenty units of first stage housing to the homeless……
……the use of chicken feces by city staff against the homeless is looking less and less offensive……
……while the behaviour of mayor and council is looking more and more offensive.
Celebrate Literacy
Whether in the Zone……
……or at Home.
At James W. Breckenridge.ca on a daily basis we practice, hone and strive to improve and enrich our language skills. Taking joy journeying to wondrous lands born of words and imagination.
Parent’s actions, what parents give, have a profound effect on who their children become. Yet seldom do parents or their children consider this important reality.
I know that I never appreciated what a magnificent gift my parents gave to me when they gifted me with a love of reading.
Reading, all that flows from the ability to read and a love of reading (a love of words) may be both the most useful and most joyful gift parents can give to future generations of their offspring.
Raise a reader.
